Racial Equity

We define racial equity in the food system as a condition in which all people, including people of color, are owners, planners, and decision-makers in the systems that govern their lives. Agri-food systems benefit from the elimination of racial inequity, which now acts to the detriment of producers, consumers, the environment, and workers. “Structural racial inequity is the way our policies and institutions interact, often invisibly, to produce barriers to opportunity, leading to systemic racial disparities. While interpersonal racial discrimination is often intentional, with structural racial inequity, intent to discriminate is not required.” Building the Case for Racial Equity in the Food System (Center for Social Inclusion, 2014)

BFI centers racial equity as an organizational-wide effort with the objective of improving all of our work. During remote operations in 2020, we convened a community advisory meeting of internal and external partners to discuss how BFI could improve its racial equity efforts. Racial inequities are a central obstacle to achieving a healthy, affordable, equitable and sustainable food system.

While BFI has made ad hoc efforts at incorporating racial equity in the past, we are now committed to embedding this lens into every aspect of our work, from planning to implementation. We take this next step with sincere intention and invite you to be a part of our journey, knowing that only our impact will determine whether or not we are successful. BFI is not the first to prioritize racial inequity as an institutional priority, yet we look forward to devoting our expertise and resources to do our part in upending this paradigm that harms us all. Our main work in this area includes: